Sean Kirst/The post-StandardThe culprit: Jordan, on the couch, not quite as warm as a laptop.

Teachers, it is said, are familiar with an ancient alibi: "The dog ate my homework." As for me, I've quickly learned to be less skeptical. For the next few days, I won't be using my computer while I'm on the road, for this simple reason:

The cat busted my laptop.

True story. Saturday, I left the laptop open on our dining room table while I went to the store. While I was gone, Jordan - a 16-year-old black cat - came in and curled up on the keyboard, enjoying the warmth generated by the computer. He fell into a deep sleep, and ignored the warning beep from whatever keys he managed to press to down. My wife heard the noise and got him off the keyboard, but the cat was on it long enough to have this bizarre result: All images on my laptop are now vertical, rather than horizontal, which I hope our tech people find a way to fix.

One of the technicians, when I told her the story, said: "You have to write that up." Here it is. If anyone else has strange my-dog-or-cat-broke-it stories, feel free to share them here.